“F.A. Davis books and online resources are perfect for our concept-based curriculum.”
Dr. Marie Hedgpeth Director of Nursing
Robeson Community College
Dr. Marie Hedgpeth is the Director of Nursing at Robeson Community College where she oversees the Practical Nursing (PN) and Associate Degree Nursing (ADN) programs. She joined Robeson in 2010, working part-time in the ADN program. Robeson then hired her full time to develop the PN program. Dr. Hedgpeth was responsible for writing the original concept-based curriculum for the PN program which launched in 2012. The challenge: Creating a completely new concept-based curriculum In 2010, Dr. Hedgpeth was asked to create a curriculum for a new PN program at Robeson Community College. At that time, the state of North Carolina was mandating that schools introduce this approach to their curricula with the goal of streamlining the content that students had to learn and increasing programmatic success rates. With no specific North Carolina state curriculum in place, Dr. Hedgpeth sought out tools that would help her create a new concept-based program. Her early work led Robeson Community College to be the third school in North Carolina to transition to this approach. The solution: F.A. Davis textbooks and online resources When she began the curriculum revision, Dr. Hedgpeth reviewed books from multiple publishers. “The F.A. Davis books most met our needs for a concept-based curriculum.” Dr. Hedgpeth notes that the F.A. Davis fundamentals book served as the foundation because it was already organized by concepts. “Other publishers didn’t have books organized that way at that time.” She discovered that F.A. Davis’s books on other subjects also worked in a concept-based curriculum, which led to her adopting materials exclusively from F.A. Davis for the new PN program. “The organization works really well. When I want to cover a specific concept, I can easily open up any book and find that concept for each subject. They are aligned and consistent which makes it easy for me to cross reference.” Dr. Hedgpeth appreciates that no matter what book the students are reading, they are getting consistent information even though the content may come from different authors. Dr. Hedgpeth requires students to do their readings prior to class, asking them to take notes and upload them to the course page. She also requires students to use the Davis Advantage and Davis Edge online resources. “I incorporate the online exercises into the classroom as well as lab and clinical.” Students have to complete the online assignments and quizzes prior to coming to class as an introduction to the concept being presented. “We discuss the quiz questions in class and in clinical. It really helps students apply the concepts they are learning to what they are seeing in real life.” Class time is spent on lectures and activities. Dr. Hedgpeth creates “micro-lectures” using the PowerPoints and other instructor resources that accompany the textbook, and then supplements those with case study activities to help students develop clinical judgment skills.
Powered by FlippingBook